School Initiatives

Assembly

Assembly takes place every Friday. We present our Student of the Week awards to each classroom and our Líne Díreach award to the best class.

We communicate together about the seasonal/relevant happenings within the school and the wider community.

We communicate about Green School, mindfulness and extra-curricular activities. We share our learning and experiences with other pupils. We pray for those who need our prayers.

We celebrate the endeavour and achievements of pupils, past and present. Sometimes we have special visitors or themed assemblies like “The Toy Show” at Christmas and Ms. McMahon’s Science Fair in November.

Digital Literacy

We are very fortunate to have excellent Digital Learning opportunities in our school. We are well-equipped with Interactive White Boards and a set of 28 ipads and several laptops. The children in all classes use the ipads to enhance and enrich their learning and to develop valuable skills in Digital Literacy. The Children have learned how to use Book Creator, Kahoot, Blookit ,A.R. quizzes. The Senior classeslearn to create a Powerpoint presentation, use Vision Boards and Capcut apps and use I.T. for Project work. The Infants use the Ipads for Reading Eggs which helps them to use their sounds and blends. The older pupils love to log into their Spellings For me and Matheletics accounts to further their Literacy and Numeracy skills.

Our School Garden

For the past few months , Miss Vaughan and Miss Daffy and the Infants , 1st and 2nd Class have been very busy in our school Garden.

We have planted a variety of vegetables which we are looking after carefully. To date we have harvested our carrots, potatoes and beetroot.

“GROW at School is a food education programme that aims to enhance food literacy in primary schools. Through garden-based learning and hands-on growing experiences, we assist students in developing a deeper understanding of the origins of healthy, sustainable food, a concept we term as ‘food empathy’.”

If you would like to read more about this initiative, click on this link :

https://giy.ie/programmes/grow-at-school/

Accelerated Reader

The introduction of the Accelerated Reading Programme has been a wonderful success. Children are more motivated to read, for pleasure, at their level. Once they have finished reading their book, they take an online quiz which gains them points. These then accumulate points to earn a prize/ homework pass as part of our reward system . Parents can log into the Renaissance HomeConnect app through our KidsZone page to monitor their child’s progress.

You can click here to find out more about the Accelerated Reading Programme.

Green Schools

We have achieved our second Green School Flag and are currently working on the third theme of Transport. We have established our Committee and conducted a Survey to inform our Action Plan. We will raise awareness within our community about the importance of protecting our environment. We collect batteries and pick litter within our community and the environs of the school. We use Digital Literacy throughout our campaign.

STEAM

Science, Technology, Engineering,
Art and Maths (STEAM).

All classes participate in STEAM activities throughout the school year. Pupils enjoy working in groups to produce an object ,within a timeframe and meeting certain criteria, like a paper playground or a house that can withstand flooding. Pupils enjoy working with LEGO and using reuseable materials to build sustainable homes/ cities. Infants work on Aistear themed projects on a daily basis.

Aistear

Play is an integral part of the infant classroom. Children express themselves through play. Aistear is the curriculum that underpins our play. We do many different themes in infants including:  

The doctor’s surgery/hospital, The Library, The Arctic, Antarctica, Santa’s workshop, The restaurant/Hallowe’en café, Buildings, Minibeasts, Summer, The zoo and more.

Children are in various groups and go to different stations during Aistear, each of which has a different focus. 

S.E.N.
(Special Education Needs)

Social groups were introduced to Kilnamona N.S in 2022. They provide a supportive environment for children who would benefit with further interaction with peers to experience success in social situations. Social challenges may stem from difficulties in areas such as sensory or emotional regulation, anxiety, attention, and social communication. Relaxing music plays while the children make Lego, play cards, play chess or make jigsaws with their peers. We also have the luxury of a Sensory Room which all the children can enjoy, on occasion, or as the need arises.

Spellings for Me

The Spellings for Me programme has been rolled out across the school, following an introductory phase. Spellings for Me is a very unique programme where students are working at their own individual level, learning and mastering words that they need to spell. Every 4 weeks, students complete spelling tests on their iPads to figure out what 48 spellings they need to learn. Over the next four weeks, we complete fun activities learning these spelling words, including drawing pictures for words, making poems and rhymes, writing stories and much more. Children learn about the roots of words and how words are formed through Etymology and Morphology . This increases their vocabulary and understanding of the English language. The app for the initiative is available in the Kids Zone section of this school website.